Minister criticises social services for ‘using and abusing’ police

By The Press Association6th October 2015News EnglandGovernment / Politics, Local Authorities, News England, Social Work

Social services and other agencies have been “using and abusing” the police for years to deal with mental health patients, according to the policing minister.

Mike Penning criticised other services, some with budgets protected from cuts, for relying on the police to respond outside office hours as he insisted officers’ jobs should not involve going to mental health units.

Mr Penning also insisted the Government has no plans to create a single national force in place of the existing 43 forces in England and Wales.

Speaking at a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, the Tory front bencher said: “It’s not, in my opinion… the job of the police to go to the mental health unit and actually deal with that. I’m sorry. It’s not the role.

“We kind of merged into this kind of role over the years. The call at 5.30pm or 4.30pm or 3.30pm on a Friday from social services – I’ve been there, seen it, done it. When I was a fireman they used to call us for things as well (such as) kicking in the front door.

“And for once we have to concertedly say ‘stop this, this is not our role’.”

Mr Penning said social services need to be informed it is their role, adding he is aware of some police forces using Tasers on mental health patients.

He went on: “Can you believe that in the 21st century? My mother was a mental health nurse for 40 years. When I told her that she cried.

“When I was told, I didn’t believe it. I’ve asked for an investigation to see what’s actually legal. If it’s not I’ll stop it.”

Mr Penning said police officers are there to help vulnerable people, but he noted: “The other agencies have been using and abusing us for years and some have protected budgets we don’t have.

“And I’m going to be a little bit controversial, (Liberal Democrat MP) Norman Lamb was a fantastic mental health minister in the last administration because for once he took this head on.

“Why have we got so many people that we are on a regular basis arresting when we know they’ve got mental health issues?”

He welcomed triage work, in which mental health experts visit custody suites, adding: “What we’ve got to make sure is that the NHS carries that through and we don’t drop into the mode where we’re the first option rather than the last.”

On the issue of a national force, Mr Penning told the meeting: “Are we looking at a national force? No. End of story. There’s a million and one different reasons why not, not least because a political decision like that – which was made in Scotland – is really, really difficult and it’s affected operational policing.”

Sara Thornton, who chairs the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said private care homes should do more to find residents who go missing before calling the police.

She said of police work in response to reports of missing people: “I’m not saying we shouldn’t do that, but the numbers I think were around 350,000 nationally last year.

“More than half of those people who go missing are going missing from private institutions and my issue is that private institutions should look for that person first before they call the police; the same way you and I look for our child or confused granny before we call the police.

“The care homes do not do that, they call the police straight away.”

She added: “I think the (Care Quality Commission) should inspect these institutions and say ‘are you keeping hold of the people you’re meant to be looking after and if you’re not we’re going to mark you down’.”